Guardians of a New World
by Fiction-stalker supreme
Summary: During his training on the Lookout Krillin overheard something that will change his view of god. Threats are a made leading towards a journey that wasn't exactly thought out, but at the end of it all, Krillin gets what he had wanted. But now there is a dawning notion that fills Krillin's mind, the earth isn't prepared. He takes it upon himself to prepare. AU.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z and Characters do not belong to me but their respective owners. This is me trying to refine my writing style and nothing more, no profit is being made and all that.

AN: This will diverge from cannon.

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><p>Chapter One<p>

A year. A small amount of time when one consider the threat that they were about to face. Krillin took a long breath, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart. It was still a year coming and yet he was just so scared.

Goku's brother Raditz had taken care of two of the most powerful people on the planet. Killed one of them to boot. Then they learnt that the two saiyans they were about to fight were at least ten times stronger.

Another shaky breath in.

The man, on the short side, sat in the middle of the room in Master Roshi's place, face set in a frown and hand at his chin.

He knew he had to train. But at the end of it all, it just seemed futile. He would train, and maybe after the year had passed he would be as strong as Goku—with luck maybe a little more powerful—but then there was still the hurdle of having to grow ten times that amount.

It was impossible. Except if there was a way to gain quick power in that short an amount of time.

Your goal, he thought to himself, is to get as powerful as you can in the shortest amount of time. How can you do that?

Training was one thing he definitely had to do. It was the only way to get stronger without the use of magic, even then it wasn't as though he knew any good witches who could gift him with a quick power boost. There was the dragon, but they had to save that for….did they though? The saiyans would land in roughly a year, time enough that he could make a wish and the dragon balls would be re-useable.

He shook his head. It wouldn't work. They didn't know the exact schedule of the saiyans, then there was the time it took to gather all the dragon balls. A month in the least. Time enough that the saiyans would destroy the planet before Goku got back from Other World.

Scrap that then, he thought.

No wishing for strength. He had to train. But he needed to get the most out of his training.

Krillin momentarily thought of joining Piccolo and Gohan in their training. Training with the green demon would allow him the most growth. But then Piccolo was volatile. That he was training Gohan was a miracle unto itself, the monk had no idea what might happened if he tried to join the fray.

Who else? Yamcha? Krillin shook his head. The man had been slacking off for some years, he was sure he was stronger than him. Yamcha would grow in strength, but in his case it would be minimal. Tien? Yeah, that would do, but it still posed the same problem. Tien was significantly weaker than Goku. They would first have to surpass the spikey haired man's power first before they were able to aim for the two saiyans.

A knock from the door interrupted Krillin's thoughts.

"Come in," he said absently not moving from his position.

The door opened and Bulma stepped in. One of the few people who knew how hard the situation was, but then again Krillin harboured the thought that perhaps even Bulma couldn't understand the situation. She couldn't sense energy, which meant she hadn't been able to sense Raditz and the milestone it would be to achieve his power.

Stop thinking in this loop, Krillin internally told himself. The only thing that can help you now will be action. The hard part though, was figuring out what to do.

"Krillin?" said Bulma, her voice was soft which was unusual for her. Maybe he wasn't giving her much credit.

"Yeah. Sorry. I was just thinking," he said.

She gave a small nod and walked into the room. She sat in front of him. "It's going to work out," she said, though Krillin could tell she didn't fully believe this. "When Goku comes back he'll be stronger. The earth won't be destroyed."

Krillin swallowed. "I have faith in Goku," he said. "But this seems a little insurmountable. If it was only one then I would have a little more hope that we could win, but…Two guys. Ten times stronger than Goku's brother."

Bulma sighed but then perked a little. "I know it seems pretty hopeless now," she said. "But not with the training you'll be getting."

Krillin's brow rose.

"Yajirobe just arrived," she said with something of a smile. "He said he had a message from Kami."

"Kami, the Guardian of the Earth, Kami?" he asked and Bulma smiled further, giving Krillin a nod.

He hadn't even considered him, all things said. Kami was an extremely powerful being, not because of the power he held, but what he could create. The dragon balls were not a trifle creation, able to grant any wish to the gatherer of the balls had, this, in Krillin's opinion made the man one of the most powerful being in the universe. Not to mention that the man was arguably older than Master Roshi, the amount of knowledge he would have accumulated would be immense.

The reason he hadn't considered Kami thought, was because the man didn't just train anyone. Goku had been the only person the Guardian had trained and tale from Goku said gaining the right to be trained and been arduous and time consuming.

Time was something they didn't have, which meant he couldn't go through arduous trials before he was trained. This way it was wonderful though, he would get trained by the Guardian and he would get stronger.

Would he be strong enough though? he wondered.

Krillin stood, a spark of hope filling him with a warmth that brightened the day a little.

"Maybe he's willing to train us," he said voicing his thoughts out loud.

"Yep," said Bulma. "At least that what I gathered. Yajirobe said after this trip he has to find Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu."

Krillin grinned further as the thought that they might win this got stronger. He got up and waited for Bulma to do the same. They went and scaled down the stairs into the living room, Master Roshi and Yajirobe sat in front of a small table partaking in small talk. They turned as he and Bulma stepped in.

"Finally got him to stop thinking, then?" Master Roshi asked, the question directed at Bulma.

"I think it's meeting Kami," said Bulma as she strode past Krillin and took a seat beside Master Roshi. "It got him all excited."

"I thought it might," said the bald man with a long white moustache.

"Yeah. Yeah. Training," Yajirobe chimed in. "Exciting. Get we can this going. I was promised I nice meal when all this was over."

"Okay," said Krillin and he took a seat in front of them.

"Simply put," he said. "Kami wants to train you to fight the saiyan threat. He wants the other who were at the tournament too…what were their names? Chazu—"

"Chiaotzu," Krillin corrected.

"Yeah. Him. And the others," he finished.

"If you don't know their names, how can you expect to find them all?" asked Bulma a frowned directed at Yajirobe. The frown soon into a scowl however as the man shrugged, looking blasé.

"Wasn't planning to," he said. A vein formed in Bulma's temple and Krillin knew what was coming. "Knew he'd want to fight, save the earth and all that." Krillin thought he could see Bulma turning a shade of red. "Particularly I don't care," the man went on. "I know it's coming in a year, and until then I just eat my fill and wait for the inevitable."

Krillin noted Master Roshi start shuffling back a little, looking between Bulma and Yajirobe with a look that was reflected on Krillin's face. The bald man stood, "Well," he said, not that Yajirobe noticed, his eyes were closed and he was going into detail about the sort of splendour he would engulf himself in. "I think I'll find the others," he said taking quiet steps back and towards the door.

He opened it and quickly took to the air, he was still in earshot however as he heard Bulma blow, loud shouts from Bulma and screams from Yajirobe. It wasn't moments before the plump man was chase out of the house and into his aircraft by an irate Bulma. Krillin let out a breath of relief that, for a change, that anger wasn't directed at him.

A look around to gain position and Krillin focused his Ki and pushed through the sky with immense speed. It would have been faster and less tiring to take an aircraft, but he needed to train and increasing his Ki reserves was a part of that. Krillin pushed himself faster, sailing above the blue water that seemed almost endless.

Maybe they would win this with Kami and Goku's help when he returned. But he wouldn't bet on them. He would need to push himself further than during his training with Master Roshi. The time for tricks and looking for the easy way out had to stop.

An hour passed, Krillin's thoughts stuck in a loop of what he could do and whether or not it would work. All things admitted it was more tiring than flying.

Land became visible in the distance, white high-rise buildings and the bustling of hovercrafts and the many people who called the city home. Yamcha would be among them. Krillin was where the man lived though. He stopped over the city and spotted a phone before descending.

He dialled.

"Talk to me," said a squeaky voice from the other side.

Krillin paused out of surprise before he gathered himself. "Puar, it's me. Krillin."

"Krillin, baby, what can I do for you?" the cat asked.

"Uhm…Yamcha. Can I speak to him?"

"He's sort of busy right now," the cat said. "In the middle of a match and all. I can give him a message though."

"No," said Krillin. "This is sort of urgent. World ending, urgent," he added.

"Oh," she said. "Well then. I'll try and get his attention. How fast can you get to the stadium in South City?"

"Five minutes," said Krillin.

"See you here the," said Puar.

Krillin put down the phone and soared into the sky, an aura of white engulfing him. He moved faster than before, headed in the direction of the large stadium near the centre of the city. Everything stopped as eyes were set on him, camera moving to them man that flew and landed in the middle of the baseball field.

"Yo, Krillin," said Yamcha with a baseball bat in hand. He looked ready to bat, a tall woman dressed in a suit next to him. "Puar tells me you said something about the end of the world."

"Yeah," said Krillin and he frowned, looking down a little. "Goku's dead," he said.

"Wow," the man said. "Oh. What happened?"

"Well, long story short. His brother arrived from out of space. Kidnapped Goku. Goku and Piccolo fought him and Goku was killed."

Yamcha looked stuck with his mouth agape.

"But that's not why I'm here. Two more of Goku's race are coming here and, after using the dragon balls. They'll destroy the earth."

Yamcha let out a long breath and ran a hand through his hair. "So I'm guessing you want me to train with you?" he asked.

"Kami wants to train us," said Krillin.

"You know," said Yamcha. "All these bombs you're dropping. Someone could get killed." Yamcha sighed again. "When is the green guy expecting us?"

"Going to head over there after I find Tien and Chiaotzu," Krillin answered.

"Well, I'll meet you there then," said Yamcha. "Go bust out my gear again. Haven't worn that thing in a long time."

"Yeah. Well. I'll see you there then." Krillin started to slowly take off.

"You know where Tien is?" Yamcha asked.

Krillin shrugged. "Mountains most likely," he said. "I'll sense him when I get close. Guy's probably training."

Krillin took off and regretted it as the cold of the mountains started to nip at his arms. He couldn't help wondering how those two were able to put up with this cold. But then it might have helped with their training.

As he'd predicted they were training. He could feel the two, their powers were like humanoid shapes in his mind, Tien shining brighter than Chiaotzu and his power extending further than his partner. He could feel that they felt him because they were coming closer. In a matter of moments the two became visible against the stark white of the snow-capped mountains.

"Krillin," said Tien with a small that Chiaotzu shared. "Long time no see."

"Good to see you buddy," said Krillin. "But time is not something we exactly have. Follow me while we talk," said Krillin before pushing towards the Lookout.

He noticed that with how long and the distance he'd been flying, he was finding it much harder to fly and talk at the same time. He would need to work on that. Any weakness that could weeded away so worth weeding away.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The Lookout. Krillin felt almost honoured that could have a close look at the place much less step foot on it. Kami stood in front of them, looking much as he always did, like an older Piccolo, something that was mildly disconcerting to see especially since Krillin had died by a green hand before.

"You," the man started, leaning heavily on his wooden staff. "Are the strongest fighters that earth has. Unfortunately, though, this is not strong enough. During the next year I hope that the training Mr Popo and I," at this the man gestured at the black genie that stood beside him, looking at Krillin and the others with a creepy smile. "Will give you a fighting chance in the coming battle."

"The training will be quite," Kami went on. "Will cater to your strengths. Krillin has excellent manipulation of energy, Chiaotzu and his extraordinary psychic abilities, and Tien and Yamcha with the prowess towards close combat. We will try to make you faster, stronger and increase your Ki reserves. The first step is something I'm sure Krillin is familiar with."

Kami pointed his finger in front of them; there was a beam of golden light and when it disappeared a pile of clothes had been deposited in front of them.

"Those are to be your attire for the duration of your training," he said. "The only time you take them off will be when you sleep. Is that understood?"

There were nods from the others.

"Mr Popo," said Kami. "Takeover."

The man smiled further. "Of course Kami," the genie said. "Now, all of you. Strip and put on the weighted clothes."

Thoughts of privacy and the like were put aside as the pulled on the clothes. Kami had been right, Krillin, when he had still trained with Master Roshi, but the man had at least showed some restraint in the strain he was putting his trainee's body under. The same could not be said for Kami. From the undershirt, the boots and the armbands, all of it was weighted. Krillin was forced to use his Ki just to be able to move.

The same, he noticed, could be said for the others. Yamcha was having the most trouble, the man's Ki was pushed much further than Krillin's own, but then again Chiaotzu was cheating as he had engulfed himself with telekinesis force.

"You'll beginning by showing me the skill you have," said Mr Popo. "An all-out fight. Krillin and Tien, and Yamcha you will fight Chiaotzu. Make this quick, go all out. I want to see your technique and your stamina. Krillin, Tien. Go."

Krillin swallowed and looked Tien over. The man was taller, with bulging muscles that would surely make him slower. Krillin tried to remember the fight at the tournament, his strengths, not that they would matter. Five years had passed and the man, much like Goku, had been training religiously in that time. He would be stronger, therefore Krillin would need to be crafty.

They walked until they found a clear space, optimal for fighting. They stare at each other before they got into their respective stances. All-out, Krillin remembered. He pushed out all his Ki, he bulked up a little and he was filled with an immense amount of energy. Tien did the same, the humanoid figure that shone in his mind's eye shining brighter.

Tien had definitely gotten stronger, but, the man thought, he would not let this intimidate him.

Krillin rushed forward and shot a punch. Tien had anticipated this, a step back and the man spun, directing a kick at Krillin's midsection. Krillin quickly dodged, flipping back and increasing the space between them. Tien lunged and drove his fist at Krillin but the fist passed through the man.

"Crap," Tien muttered as Krillin suddenly appeared behind him readying a kick. He missed by the barest of inches as Tien stepped back, his hands crackling with energy.

It happened fast, Tien shot a beam of energy and Krillin knew he wouldn't be able to dodge. He pushed his sky around himself forming a thin shield. The beam hit and pushed him back, sapping him of a fraction of his reserves, not to mention that the energy was enough to hurt him.

Krillin lunged, breaking into a flurry of punches directed at the three-eyed man. Tien dodged most, blocking a few. A moment passed, time in which Krillin saw the ineffectiveness of his action. He pushed himself back but Tien capitalised in that small moment, he went on the attack; not fast enough to dodge Krillin block, pushing the pain of every hit back and feeling an ounce of anger because with each hit he felt his reserves plummet.

A scream from Krillin and burst of Ki was sent out, enough to push Tien back. Krillin took the open, spinning and landing a kick to the face. Tien soared back, flashed brighter to come to a sudden stop.

The man was far enough that it gave Krillin a breather.

Five minutes in and he was already tired. Another weakness that would need to be weeded out.

Krillin settled on the ground. No use expending Ki for keeping himself aloft. No, he corrected, this was training. He needed to use his Ki reserves so that they grew.

He noticed the minute motions from Tien. The man was about to lunge. Krillin tensed, trying to figure out a strategy. Tien lunged, pushing off with Ki. Krillin made to dodge but the man abruptly turned left, leaving only an after image. Krillin looked up just in time to see the man come elbow first towards him. His arms came up and the shoulder hit with enough force that his feet dug into the ground.

Tien disappeared and appeared almost instantly in front of Krillin, leg extended and ready for a kick. It all happened to fast, but Krillin had enough sense to try and gather his Ki into a shield. The leg slammed into his and shot him back. He tried to stop himself but Tien was already above, the foot drove into his stomach pushing all the air out of him. He slammed into the ground, foot still on him.

Tien jumped off and Krillin found he couldn't move.

He had a lot of work to do, his last thought before he fell unconscious.

"That was embarrassing," Krillin muttered. He'd been healed by Kami after the fight between Yamcha and Chiaotzu, the former of who had won, and now the warriors were sitting in front of table that was filled with enough food that even Goku would have the smallest of trouble.

"You were actually good," said Tien. "You're certainly stronger than you were in the tournament."

"Yeah, but not strong enough," said Krillin. "I couldn't even last five minutes."

"None of us did," said Yamcha. "It's these damned weighted clothes," he said pulling against his armbands. "Annoying."

"But useful," said Krillin. "I remember when Goku first took them off. Our speed doubled."

"Something that's not going to be the same, I feel," said Tien. "Mr Popo doesn't strike me as a person who would let this become easier. He'll increase the weights when we start moving with ease."

Yamcha groaned. "We're the world not at stake, I'd ditch this before my body starts to really ache."

"Sad that it is," said Chiaotzu. "What do we know about these saiyans?" Chiaotzu. "Weakness that we can exploit."

"There's the tail thing," said Yamcha with food in his mouth. He was quiet for a moment, chewing and the swallowing. "When Goku still had his tail the moment you held on to it, all his strength left him."

"Yeah," said Krillin. "Which could get real annoying when our enemy was powerful," he muttered.

"So there's that," said Tien. "During the fight, we misdirect, trying to get a hold of their tails." There were nods. "Which means we have to really work on our speed."

"Which means more of these weights," Yamcha groaned.

"What else?" asked Chiaotzu. "Aiming to exploit one weakness is like putting all our eggs in one baskets. We have roughly a year on our hands. Time to work on exploiting those weaknesses. What else can we use?"

"They can't sense energy," said Krillin after a moment's thought. "Goku's brother had this scouter that he used to sense energy for him."

"Okay," said Yamcha. "We also try to take those out."

"And use misdirection," Krillin added. "Solar Flare. After-image."

"And the Multiform technique," said Tien. "I'll have to work at it though. It has the major drawback of spreading out my Ki in equal parts. If I could stop that, then I could use them like clones."

"Hour up," Mr Popo's voice came into the room. "Your training begins now."

Krillin wove through the air, dodging the flurry of punches that Yamcha was sending his way. The man disappeared and Krillin guessed where he would appeared. He whirled around a ball of energy already forming. He sent it forward just as Yamcha appeared, the ball caught him in the stomach and sent the man flying further away.

Krillin's hand closed in a fist and the ball detonated. He didn't let out a breath of relief. He'd missed. Yamcha zipped through the air, circling around to catch Krillin from behind; again Krillin whirled around, prepared to send another ball of energy.

"Damn," he muttered. He started closing his eyes but light was faster. A fierce blinding light hit him, his eyes burning. He tried to concentrate on Yamcha's power but his entire focus was on the pain radiating from his eyes.

A punch plunged into his stomach, pusing all the air from his lungs, a kick landed at his ribs and he was sent flying. He gathered enough presence of mind to stop himself.

He tried opening his eyes but all he could see was a blurry figure in the distance, an immense blue light forming over his hand.

The Spirit Ball. Krillin centred himself, legs apart and hand cupped at his side. Not much charge put into the attack he said, "Kamehameha!"

A burst of blood energy shot from his hands as he extended them, moving swiftly between him and Yamcha. The man jumped into the sky, abandoning the spirit ball. Krillin pulled the, trying to direct the attack up but to no avail. He still couldn't control it effectively, even after three months' non-stop training.

Damn, he thought. Not enough improvement.

Yamcha was close. Krillin dodged back and sent a kick. It missed, ploughing through an after-image. A scream and a shield formed around him. It shattered from the hit, but it slowed enough that Krillin was able to catch the arm; a twist once, twice and Yamcha thrown clear across the Lookout and slammed through the entrance of the building.

A momentary respite. Krillin concentrated, cordoning off a portion of his Ki. He pushed it back and a second Krillin split itself from the original.

"Turtle wave," Krillin said and the clone nodded, taking a step next to the original. They waited and the. "Crap again." They both dodged as the ball of blue light flew towards them, flying in opposite directions.

The ball swerved through the air, following the original. Krillin flew away, trying to get away from the energy ball that was steadily getting closer. His clone, he noticed was at something of a loss, watching as the original was chased by the ball.

How did the ball work? he asked himself as he was forced to change direction. Did it follow him of its own volition or was it being controlled. Krillin hadn't heard any speak of a heatseeking energy beam being developed—which was a good idea now that he thought about it—which meant Yamcha had to be in control.

The question then turned. How did he do that? The answer was easy. Krillin plunged down and quickly lowered his energy. The ball changed direction, head straight for his clone—the clone cupped its hands at its side and a blue ball formed. It send it out towards the ball, but it was stronger, the beam was forced back and the ball slammed into the clone. Denoting.

The clone dropped to the ground.

When they merged, Krillin knew he would be under an intense amount of pain. But he pushed this aside. Yamcha. He would be gathering energy. Krillin focused and felt through the walls. He found the man.

Krillin let out another clone, gestured for it to go to the other side of the building as distraction. Krillin gathered his energy and prepared another Turtle Wave, the last he would be able to achieve if he wanted to do any flashy moves.

He put more Ki than was needed and shot the beam. Yamcha dodged only to be caught by the clone in the stomach, a two-handed fist to the back and Yamcha was on the ground.

Krillin let out a long tired breath, starting to feel the strain from the morning workout. Mr Popo appeared from the house.

"Breakfast's ready," he said.

"Thanks," Krillin said. "Be there in a few minutes." Yamcha was getting up at this point. Krillin's second clone flew towards him and entered his body, not much pain but it was still there. He walked over to the second and he almost screamed, the injuries didn't transfer, but the brain still believed that it had been hurt form the clone's experience. A few moments passed were he was in a paralysed state, his arms aching and burns radiating from his everywhere.

A few breaths and he was able to push the pain back.

He was certainly a lot more powerful than before. But it still wasn't enough. He needed to be stronger.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

A long circular hallway that lead…somewhere. Nine months had passed since the first day of their training and still Krillin found himself lost in the simple task of trying to find the bathroom. Doors of various shapes and sizes would appear at times, a long winding stairway up and another going down, Krillin was truly and utterly lost.

Krillin stretched out his sense and found nothing, the place was too big, which was strange considering it was so small on the outside, and the others were probably asleep, their power levels supressed.

Another turn. A flight up and Krillin heard voices.

"Their time with us is at an end," said the gravelly voice belonging to Kami. "And yet they still are not strong enough."

Krillin's heart clenched. He knew it too, by his estimations they were only a few leagues stronger than Raditz and with time so short, there was none to improve. But to hear it said by Kami was like some nail in a coffin. He almost whimpered and he'd worked so hard. All of them had.

"There's still the Hyperbolic Time Chamber," said Mr Popo. "A day into a year. Perhaps they would be able to match the saiyan threat."

There was a small pause. "I'm afraid not," Kami said. "We can't have them too powerful, too quickly. Piccolo might suspect and whatever redemption he feels fade away. We cannot have him return to his evil ways."

"True," said Kami. "But are we willing to stake the earth on this?" the genie asked.

"The earth, I feel, will survive. Remember, Mr Popo, that Goku is being trained by King Kai. He will surely come back stronger."

"Still," asked Mr Popo. "Will it be strong enough? What we're about to do, we will be sending them into a slaughter."

"They will be bidding time," said Kami. "This, all of this, is for Piccolo. It was why we didn't step in when he took Goku's child. He needs to feel protective over something, and earthlings have the propensity to garner love."

Mr Popo sighed. "I don't like this, Kami," the genie said.

"Neither do I," said Kami. "But it has to be done for the greater good."

Krillin stayed absolutely still, not able to breath, not able to thinking, but feeling an insurmountable amount of anger boiling in his stomach. Of all people who he would have ever thought would have alternative motives, Krillin would not thought Kami, Guardian of the Earth, would. He realised that his Ki was boiling up to the surface, he quickly pushed it down.

Kami and Mr Popo hadn't heard his lost stumbles. Which meant they would be unaware that he'd heard their conversation.

What would he do now, though? The information would break the others. They all knew they were weak, but to hear that their role in the coming fight was only to stall, would give them the same hopelessness Krillin felt at the moment.

But there was hope. This Hyperbolic Time Chamber. It was the solution. But first he would need to know what it was, how it worked and how he could get to it. Which would be hard seeing as he couldn't trust Kami anymore.

Whatever he was going to do, though, he knew he would have to at least feign ignorance. He didn't want to go against the power than Kami and Mr Popo had.

His thoughts were a mess as he started traversing the various halls until luckily he found his way to room he and the others slept in. Sleep didn't come easy, but it did come.

The next morning he couldn't get his thoughts straight. He usually was in top form, weaving past attacks and quickly thinking up countermeasures for the attacks directed his way, but this morning he was truly distracted. He managed to dodge a punch from Tien, flipping back twice in an effort to extend the distance between himself and the three-eyed man; his hands closed into fists and he focused, concentrating his Ki into them the result being two balls of orange energy. Krillin didn't even flinch as Tien charged, he sent salvo of blasts at Tien and the man sharply took to the sky, evading the hits. Tien's hands formed a triangle and Krillin muttered oath and the blast was headed for him.

He jumped to the side, landing in a roll. Tien capitalised, his feet moving so fast that Krillin couldn't dodge. The man blocked instead and in the moments that a rhythm settled, his mind wandered. Kami would have them leave, complete their training on their own, that would be the chance. Then, Kami wouldn't be on guard, watching that one of them would stumble on this Time Chamber. Krillin would have to keep his energy supressed until he found it, then he would keep training in there.

He'd thought about, and as far as he could figure, the room must mess with time. Giving him a year. A thought came that maybe it would be a good idea to invite the others, but a group of four would be hard to hide from a man who could sense most of the world from the Lookout. No, he would have to do this alone if he was going to have sure success—a fist landed at his jaw, jerking him from his thoughts.

"You seem distracted," said Tien, but he didn't stop his advance. He sent an blast at Krillin and the shorter man dodge, Tien had been expecting this however because he use Krillin's dodge to get closer; a punch that Krillin block, another that Krillin managed to shrug off and the man's head collided with Krillin's nose.

Krillin was forced back, landing on the ground, his eyes closed and biting back a scream. He looked up, pissed, but Tien was already gone. An elbow landed on his neck and sent him colliding with the ground, denting it. A flash of anger and Krillin pushed himself off.

"Just thinking," he said pushing towards Tien, making sure that the man was now on the defensive.

"About?" the man asked.

"The usual," said Krillin. "The deadline's drawing…closer. We only have a month left. And even that's vague."

"Yeah," said Tien. "Makes it—" Krillin tried to send a punch but Krillin disappeared and appearing above him and driving a leg through. Krillin immediately dodge to the side. "—hard to focus. But that isn't reason to be slacking off. Solar Flare!"

The light wasn't as powerful as it was before and it didn't have the annoying ability to mess with his sense, but it was still annoy. Krillin closed his eyes, opting to focus on keeping track of Tien with his sense. He felt the Ki fuelled fist directed at him, he ducked under it, sweeping his legs to catch Tien. The man dodged, spinning back and landing a distance away. It was a second at most, but Krillin sensed Tien split into two, one of them stronger than the other.

Unlike Krillin, Tien was a lot better with his clones. He didn't need to tell his clones what to do, he could impart the knowledge in the before they split. Something that couldn't be said for Krillin. The technique wasn't own, therefore he wasn't attuned to it like Tien would, he didn't know the deeper workings of it. But he was learning and he thought that if he had more time he could—a white throbbing pain and Krillin shot back, sliding on the ground before he found his feet.

He was on the defensive again, but what worried him was that the real Tien was charging an attack. Tri-Beam Cannon? No, if it were so then the man would be in the sky. Another attack, just as powerful, without a doubt. He'd have to dodge. More than anything he'd have to keep a metaphorical eye on the real Tien.

The real Tien grew brighter even as Krillin fought, steadily getting the upper hand. Krillin dodged as he felt the attack come at him, but, all of this had been a trap, a third Tien he'd overlooked shot an attack. It hit its mark and Krillin was sent barrelling towards the ground, all his strength leaving him.

He let out a sigh before he lost consciousness; again the embarrassment of being knocked out. It seemed ironic in a way.

"So we're you guys headed?" asked Yamcha. The three warrior floated in the air at the bottom of the Lookout, Kami and Mr Popo had bid them farewell, saying that he'd taught them all that he could.

"Chiaotzu and I think we'll head back to the mountains," said Tien. "Try and get more training in before those guys arrive." Chiaotzu gave an agreeing nod to this.

"Think I might take it easy for today," Yamcha said. "I'm all trained out truth be told. What about you, Krillin?"

"I think I might check-up on Chi-Chi. Tell her that Gohan's alright. She must be really worried seeing as she hasn't seen him in a while."

"Well, good luck with that," said Yamcha. The man surrounded himself in an aura of white energy. "See you when…" he let out a sigh. "Well, I'll see you guys when the fighting begins." The look that Yamcha had was shared by the childlike Chiaotzu, a look of anxiety and uncertainty.

"I'm sure we'll make it out of this alive," said Tien. "Our best is all we can give. Let's make sure we give."

Krillin gave a nod and it was shared by the others.

"Well," he said. "I'll be seeing you guys. There's something I want to get started on and time is sort of against us."

"See you, Krillin," said Chiaotzu.

Krillin pushed off moving faster than he would have ever imagined a few months ago. The weights had really helped, without them off flying no longer had the strain it had held before. He reached for his reserves and pushed himself even faster. City scape soon turned to see and not even an hour had passed before small houses appeared amongst thick foliage, scattered mountains invading his sight.

He saw the house and he could sense the above average power level within the house; that would be Chi-Chi. He went down and landed, taking a long breath before gathering the courage for a quick rap.

It wasn't a second before the door was viciously pulled open and the word Gohan was thrown into the wind. "Oh," she said and she sounded a little disappointed. "It's you Krillin." She put on a small smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "How are you?"

"I'm good," Krillin said. "Keeping busy. I thought I might check up on you. See how you're doing."

"Oh," and she gestured for Krillin to come in. "I manage," she said. "I do miss him though. Both of them."

Krillin shuffled, eyes downcast at a loss at what to say. You're here for a reason, he thought to himself. Get to it.

"Uhm…Chi-Chi. I know this might not be the time. But I'm wondering if Goku's ever mentioned something called the Hyperbolic Time Chamber?"

The woman was quiet for a few moments, frowning in thought before her eyes lightened a little. "Yes," she said. "I remember him telling me. He said it was perhaps the most intense training he's ever undergone. Why? Are you thinking of using it?"

Krillin nodded. "But I need to know what it does. All I know is that it could get me stronger."

"Well, why don't you ask Kami? If I remember right, it was he that showed Goku to the chamber."

"That's sort of a long story," said Krillin. "One I'm not sure I want to tell anyone yet. It's sort of outlandish."

Chi-Chi snorted a little. "Outlandish," she muttered. "Like finding out your husband is an alien, outlandish?"

"In that vein yes," said Krillin. "At least that what I think with what little information I have." He shrugged. "Things might start to make a lot more sense if I asked somewhat about what I know, but…it's complicated."

"Let's start with what you heard," said Chi-Chi. "Tell me, maybe I can help you figure it out."

Krillin took a large breath. He knew he could trust Chi-Chi. She was one of his oldest friends. But he couldn't put this burden on her too, not to mention that Gohan was involved in all this. If she found out about Kami's plans, then she might lose hope, thinking that she would lose her son as she had lost her husband.

He couldn't keep this all in though, could he? No, he would have to. He could deal with this burden on his own. Kami didn't know the future. He didn't know what would happened, how they would fair in the coming fight, but more than anything he had faith, much like Krillin, that Goku would come back stronger.

It still didn't mean that Krillin would let himself fall weak because of faith in a friend. He still had to do all he could to make sure he was stronger than he was now.

Krillin shook his head. "I'm sure I'll figure this out," he said. "Can you think of anything else about this room, about how it works?"

Most of the day, Krillin spent at the Son residence as Chi-Chi tried to think of all she knew about the room. As the sun began to set, after going into some light training Krillin left with the knowledge that the room would give him another year in a day. Time enough that he would get stronger if his growth now was anything to go buy.

He took off in the direction of the Lookout again. It might have been slower, but he made sure to keep his power level as low as he could while still flying. He landed at the Lookout and made sure to stay away from the two powers in the place as he searched.

It hit him as he searched the halls, again lost, that he was indeed stupid. He knew what the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, about how it could help him, but the thing was, he hadn't asked what the door looked like, or where to find it. Not that Chi-Chi would know anything to that effect, of course, but it wouldn't have hurt to ask.

An hour spent walking through the Lookout and countless doors walked through—some of which had sent him into other worlds he was sure—and he felt the first amount of dread when he noticed the first of the power levels was headed deftly his way. If it were possible, Krillin might have lower his power even further, but he was sure doing that would gather more attention.

How could he deal with this then? he thought. There was hiding, the Lookout was large enough that he would be able to slip into a room and he would be unable to be found. A major flaw though, was that Kami and Mr Popo knew this place far better than him, and from the coming power they knew how to move through its halls far faster than he could.

If he hid, it wouldn't last for very long.

Confrontation, then. But how to deal with it. If it was Mr Popo it would be easier, the man had wanted Krillin and the others to go into the Time Chamber. Krillin guessed, that if he was the one tracking him, he would appeal to that; try and convince the genie to show him to the room. But if it was Kami, then things would be a lot more complicated.

Fifteen minutes in all before the green figure with withered skin and wearing a white rob appeared.

"You know," he was saying as his eyes landed on Krillin, the shorter man had fallen into his fighting stance and Ki brought to the surface. "I expected you to run when you felt me coming. Most intruders would have done so."

"I know," said Krillin, keeping the shakiness he felt from seeping into his voice. "But what I need is here."

Kami nodded. "What is it, then? Perhaps I can help you. I do know this place better than most after all."

"I want to go into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber," said Krillin throwing caution into the wind. The surprised flashed so briefly that he might have missed it.

The Guardian let out a tired sigh. "I would have not thought Goku powerful enough to have broken through the mind barriers I put on him regarding that room," the man said. Kami shook his head, muttering lowly. "More so I would not think he would have told you with tenure you two have spent apart." Again Kami shook his head. "But, then, why would you not have asked me about it while you and the other warriors were still training, if…"

He paused, looking stricken.

"Because I knew what you would say if I asked," said Krillin.

"Which explains that you're prepared to fight a battle you would lose," said Kami and his calm voice momentarily left Krillin off-balance. He didn't lose his alertness though, he was against someone much faster, stronger and smarter. The barest second could mean the difference between losing and winning. "Come with me, Krillin, so that I may explain a few things."

It took a long while before Krillin got his body to move and follow after Kami. Not that he lost his alertness though, Kami was willing to let them die for some sort of plan with Piccolo, whatever trust he'd put into the god had significantly fallen.

A walk through the Lookout found them outside, looking over to the dark horizon. Krillin kept up his guard, looking for a flair in Kami's power that would prelude the attack. But none came.

"I can only guess how disappointed you must be in me," Kami started, his eyes set on the far distance. Krillin held back the snort. Understatement, he thought. "But believe me when I say. You not going into that room is for the greater good."

"Greater good in what respect?" Krillin asked. "We're still too weak. Only just surpassed Raditz' power. The Hyperbolic Time Chamber would give us more time to get stronger, maybe have a chance at standing up to the saiyans without the world being destroyed."

"The world won't be destroyed," said Kami.

Krillin snorted. "Unless you're hiding a lot more power, I doubt that," said Krillin.

"We will win this," Kami continued. "I've spoken to King Kai—" Krillin had heard from Goku about the man, but beyond his name he knew nothing about him. "—and Goku is showing a significant amount of improvement. He has surpassed his brother by a few leagues already."

"SO we're putting our eggs in one basket?" Krillin snapped, remembering only after he'd said, "That's stupid," that he was speaking to Kami.

The man didn't seem to take any offence in this. "There is also Piccolo."

"Someone whose allegiance with us is thin," said Krillin. "Someone who could betray us at any moment."

Kami shook his head. "Piccolo won't turn against us," the man said. "I've been watching him, these past few months, and I'm sure that our _demon_ friend is starting to experience a strange emotion." Krillin looked at the god with a raised brow. "Love."

"Love?"

Kami nodded. "Yes. I'm not sure if he has realised it yet, but he feels a fondness for Gohan that he can't explain." Which explains how Gohan fit into the situation, Krillin thought. "But this connection he feels for young Gohan still isn't strong and the smallest thing could break it. Which is why I cannot interfere with Piccolo, nor can I have you and the others surpass him in power."

"I don't understand," said Krillin.

"For the longest time Piccolo has cared about two things. Conquering the world—which by extension means dethroning me—and beating Goku. Since Goku died and Piccolo took the title as one of the stronger beings on the planet, he mellowed. Put thoughts of conquering the world at the back of his mind in an effort to protect the earth. If one of you, Tien, Yamcha or Tien got stronger than him, the little progress he's made towards love would be lost."

Krillin let out a sigh, rubbing his brow with a certain fury as he felt an overwhelming amount of frustration. "A major flaw in that and I'm sure I don't even need to tell you what it is."

"That we might lose," said Kami and Krillin gave an emphatic nod, "the saiyans get their wish of immortality and destroy the earth." Kami paused for a moment. "Rest assured, that will not happen. I have planned it as such."

"Care to explain your plans?" Krillin asked but he could tell he would receive no explanation. "Forgive me if I don't trust you then," Krillin said.

"I can accept that," said Kami.

"Also, forgive me for doing this," said Krillin. "But at this point it's my only leverage." Krillin gathered all his Ki, preparing to push it all out in one burst. Kami turned to face him, the god gripping his staff that much tighter, stern eyes looking at Krillin. "You'll try and silence me," said Krillin. "Probably put a mind block for this entire conversation, but before you do that I'll release all my Ki like a beacon. I'll die, but the others will be curious. Maybe even Piccolo might be curious. They'll come here and all this plans you have, they'll all be for nought."

Kami scowled and Krillin shivered as he felt the man's power rise, a tide that had been hidden become appear. He almost got lost in the almost endless amount of power, but he didn't let this change his mind, he didn't let his anxiety win-over.

"Would you really be willing to stake the survival of the earth?" Kami asked his voice cold.

"No," said Krillin. "I'm only trying to get stronger so I can at least pose a challenge," he said. "I want to protect the earth and I don't care if Piccolo is an enemy at the end of it all because at least he wouldn't destroy the planet."

"I don't respond well to threats, child," the Guardian said and his eyes glinted in an intimidating light.

"I don't care," said Krillin. "The way I see it, you're well prepared for all of us to die. Death is something I'm not particularly afraid of now knowing that Other World exists. Maybe I too will be sent to King Kai and while I'm there I'll tell Goku all about your plans. He should be stronger than you right?"

Another flash and Krillin shivered.

"Mr Popo," said Kami and the man materialized from the darkness. Krillin didn't show his shock.

"Yes, Kami."

"Take Krillin to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber," the man said, his voice still as cold as ice. "Ensure it is aptly supplied for his one year tenure."

Mr Popo nodded with no questions asked. "Follow me," he said to Krillin and walked off.

With one last look at the forlorn look of the Guardian of the Earth, Krillin followed Mr Popo.

A week to be scared that this was all a trap before he got into the training headfirst. There was something scary about the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Krillin was sure whether it was the endless expanse that he woke up to every…morning (?), that there was no difference between day and night, the solitude, or that a sprained ankle had almost left him immobile with the intense gravity of this place.

But from his first day, he'd wanted to leave, fuelled only by the need to grow more powerful that he'd been able to stick through the entire week. The time spent getting over his fears though had meant one less week he had to train with any particularly intensity.

Now though, the same could not be said: using Ki Krillin was currently doing his best to stay in an upright walk for longer than ten minutes. He huffed, trying to get the almost thick air into his lungs, and took another step. This wasn't even the bad part though. The further he walked, the heavy his body was, which meant for the moment Krillin had restricted himself to a small bubble around the house serving as a gateway between whatever world this was and earth.

It took a month in total before he felt comfortable enough to expend his bubble and Krillin didn't like the slow progress. He was still trying to get acclimatised to the place, not refining his Ki control or his techniques nor trying to develop new techniques. Two more months, he thought, then I push myself harder.

Those months too passed quickly and in that short amount of time Krillin graduated to putting on the weighted clothes Kami had given. He was still sluggish in his motions, but he at least took comfort that he'd been able to ward off insanity by bring a measure of sentience to his clones. Part of the midday, thought the term was used wantonly, set of training was viciously sparring with his clone before moving to perfect the Turtle Wave, he still hadn't been able to put some finesse into it, which was annoying. What use was a beam of energy that only went straight? It was so restrictive in usability.

There was also another technique he was working on, but it still wasn't going well. It needed fine control over energy, something Krillin still lacked. But, all things admitted, he could feel was coming closer to perfecting the technique and if he was able to, it would be much like the drill Piccolo had used to defeat a more powerful opponent, though his would be less drill and more disk.

All of it depended on Ki control though, and Krillin was getting steadily better.

When the sixth month hit he was moving as though he was on earth, weaving through the air with three clones trying to hit him. He disappeared, appearing above one of the clones and driving his foot into its neck. The clone plummet and hit the ground, Krillin didn't have time to keep his eyes on it before he was forced to pay attention to the two remaining clones. They moved faster without the restraints of the weighted clothing, but they were much for strategy, instead fighting with the instinct that Krillin had honed through years of training.

A feint and Krillin took the opening he saw, swinging his leg to catch the clone in the side only for it to be caught. Another clone capitalised, directing a knee at Krillin's face. The warrior responded swiftly, bringing his arms up to take the brunt of the blow. He didn't even have time to breath before he was whirled through the air three times and thrown into the distance. The further away he went, the colder it got and the heavier his body felt.

A moment of blind panic before rational took over. Krillin cupped his arms at his side and focused, gathering his Ki and directing it to his hands. A ball of blue light glowed bright, breaking the monotony of the white landscape.

Krillin shot it forward with a bellowed _Kamehameha _and the energy beam collided with the ground, giving his forward momentum a dead stop and thrusting him back. The atmosphere got a whole lot bearable the closer he got to his house.

Krillin couldn't help letting out a breath of relief, of course this was moments before a clone seized his distracted state and punched him to the ground.

The training continued.

A beam of blue light that went straight. It plagued him in a way. He didn't know why the damned thing was so hard, nor, for that matter, why he was so obsessed in achieving it. And then it hit him as he lay, muscle akin, in a warm bath: I'm jealous.

From the very beginning Krillin had noticed that he was weaker than Goku, but he'd always taken it well. When Goku had been able to grow faster and stronger he had been able to take it in stride, telling himself that he was lazy and didn't put as much stock as he could in training. But now here he was, six months spent trying to refine the same technique and he still hadn't mastered it. Something Goku had already done countless time before.

"Not a healthy thought, Krillin," he told himself, the sound of a voice, even his own, oddly comforting. "Goku's an alien, you know that now. Part of a warrior race that sent babies to ravage planets to be sold."

Krillin paused as a disturbing thought formed in his mind. Goku's race sold planets. Which meant there had to be buyers out there. Other races that didn't care whether or not a planet was inhabited, only that they called it their own. His stomach plunged. There were other aliens who were malevolent. It wasn't such a stretch to think that there might be some that were a lot more powerful and inevitably they would stumble on earth. A scary thought, but now that Krillin thought about it, Kami's actions made a lot more sense. In a way he was trying to minimise in the internal fighting within the planet, which meant pacifying Piccolo was a major part.

If ever Krillin felt like an ass, it was now. But still, even with the near-future possible looking bleak, there was still the present. They had the saiyans. A race of people who might be like be like Goku—sans his amiability—that thrived off a fight, always wanting to get stronger.

Kami was focusing on the future. Putting contingencies in place so that the earth survived not only this battle, but the ones that would possibly follow. Okay, then, the man thought, while Kami looks at the future, I'll look towards the present. Keep thinking of ways to take on vastly superior fighters, or at least hold off until Goku came back from Other World.

After the bath Krillin returned to developing his technique.

The door opened and something strange happened.

Everything stopped.

It was, for that moment, as though the room had normalised which was strange having spent so long in the room. He stopped his sparing session and flew down, leaving the void and going into the little house he had called home for what he guessed was a year. He suppressed his power, compacting it to the point that there was no difference before he'd gone into the room and now.

He smiled a little as his eyes landed on Mr Popo. The man too had that creepy smile on him, large round eyes staring at Krillin with a chilling look that the man felt might have been looking at his soul.

Krillin pushed back the thoughts.

"Hello, Mr Popo," he said. The man smiled further and gave a bow.

"Hello, Krillin," the genie returned. "I feel that you've grown a very large amount during your year's training."

"Yeah," said Krillin. Not knowing whether to feel at ease. Two years and he'd forgotten how powerful Raditz had been. He had no idea if he was powerful enough, though he knew that he was indeed strong. "I'm wondering if I'll be able to make a difference though."

"Strength is not the only determiner of victory," said Mr Popo. "I have lived a very long time and in that time I have seen countless battles not one by the strongest of warriors. But the smartest."

"Thank you, Mr Popo."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Even off planet their power was enough to set alarms ringing in Krillin's mind. Not three days after they had wished Goku back to life—word was the man was currently on his way through Snake Way (Krillin hadn't asked) and would be on earth sometime today—and the threat had finally landed.

Krillin calmed his already beating heart. Calmly took of his weighted clothes and put on his orange uniform. The moment the weight was off he felt a lot lighter, his punches swifter and his reserves climbing a little now that he didn't have to devote some energy with being able to move. He was starting to move when his heart almost stomach, a massive wave of power rolled past him, and one of the saiyans shining bright with the attack they had just used.

None of the more powerful powers were there, which meant they'd attacked at town, attacked civilians. Krillin felt a burning anger spark in his stomach and his energy rise a beat, he wasn't the only one, five sparks of power rose from other places as well, but one was powerful above all others. That would be Piccolo, Krillin thought. He felt the saiyans move, their speed incredible and headed straight for Piccolo and Gohan.

Krillin flew to intercept.

Fifteen minutes in all and he spotted them, Piccolo and Gohan stood two one side, purple clothes in a style that was completely Piccolo, and on the other side were the saiyans. Both were humanoid, wearing strange armour and had tails wrapped around their waists, but that was where the similarities between them ended, one was taller and muscular, his head balled and with a trimmed moustache, the other was shorter, wild and spikey hair that stood on end, and he had a bored expression to him.

All were looking at him as he approached and landed beside Piccolo and Gohan. The latter of the two was smiling as he saw Krillin.

"Mr Krillin," the boy said with a large grin.

"Hey, Gohan. You've grown this year haven't you?" he said given the boy a rub of hair. Gohan let out a nervous chuckle, eyes flashing towards Piccolo a little, the man was looking at the both of them with an intense scowl. "Piccolo."

The demon's only answer was a grunt before his eyes returned to the saiyans.

"Hey, Vegeta," the large one said with gruff yet jovial voice. "Are you also getting the niggling feeling that they've been expecting us?"

"Raditz, the fool," said Vegeta. "Left his scanner on both directions." The short man shook his head. "Never before have I met more of a disgrace to our kind."

"He did make things interesting though, didn't he?" said the taller one. "They aren't that powerful…but maybe if I go easy on them I can draw this out. Tire them," his voice taking on a musical quality, "and torture them. Beat them and bruise them. Until they tell us all about the dragon balls."

The shorter man clicked the scouter mounted on his ear then said, "Honestly, Nappa, I don't think it's worth it. Even the ones approaching aren't even new Raditz's power level. Plant the saibamen, don't dirty your hand with such weak opponents."

Piccolo growled and felt rise in power from Piccolo, there were beeps from and rattles from the scouters that the saiyans wore—Krillin made a note, starting to thinking of ways to quickly deal with the scouters—Nappa grinned.

"Well look at that, the Namekian can hide its power," the large man grinned further. "Neat. Maybe this will be entertaining."

"Namekian?" Krillin asked, sparing Piccolo a look. "You know what he's talking about?"

Piccolo shrugged his eyes not moving from the two. "But I know where I might find out when we end all this," he said. "Can we get started?" he asked not masking his impatience. "I've got better things to do than to stand here for the entire day."

"Feisty one isn't he?" the large saiyan said and cracked his knuckles. "But if he wants a brawl before the slowpokes get here. I'm willing to—" He was interrupted by the beeping of his scouter and in the distance Yamcha appeared, engulfed in an aura of white. He dove and landed.

"So this is them," Yamcha said. He flared up power up even higher. "Why hasn't the fighting began already?"

"We were about to before you interrupted," Nappa said, clearly annoyed. "Can just kill two of them? Can't let those little green seedlings have all the fun."

Vegeta shrugged. "Go to town, Nappa. We're spending far longer on this planet than I wanted in the first place."

Nappa grinned all the more further. "Reason I like you, Vegeta. You let me have all the fun," starting a slow strut forward. He looked over them, the power than he had overbearing in way before he chose a target. "Just to make this far," he said. "I'll call my attack." He pointed at Yamcha. "I'm going to attack you. Add another scar to you face of yours. Make you _look _like a warrior."

Yamcha grinned, settling into a low stance and his power skyrocket. "Looks like I get to start this off then, don't I?" Yamcha took in a long breath and let it out.

"No need to be scared, little man," the giant said. "I'll make this as painful as possible."

Yamcha's eyes narrowed before he rushed forward, Krillin heard Gohan's breath hitch a muttered, "He disappeared," coming from the boy just Yamcha appeared in front of the saiyan delivering a punch. The giant saw it, moved to grab the fist only to pass through it. Yamcha appeared above the man and drove a kick home. He wasn't fast enough, the giant dodged, hands hitting the ground before he pushed himself off, slamming into Yamcha and driving the smaller man into the sky.

"Look up," said Piccolo.

Again Gohan's breath hitched. "How did they get up there so fast?" he asked.

"They were fighting," the tall man said, "You just weren't looking."

"What? I was—"

"No," Piccolo said, his voice stern. "You weren't. You were trying to look instead of doing it. Don't. Let your eyes do all the work, they're predisposed to motion. Strong trying to see where they are and actually see."

The small scuffle had started anew in the small moments of the talk between Piccolo and Gohan. Yamcha was doing his back in trying to land a hit, but the larger man kept weaving out of the way with ease. He flew back as Yamcha aimed a kick at him shot out a punch that Yamcha dodged, the other fist however came too fast; Yamcha tried to block it but that Nappa was too strong. The collision was audible and Yamcha was sent barrelling back and into the ground.

Krillin felt a surge of familiar power, strong enough that the scouter would beep.

"Piccolo, Gohan close your eyes," Krillin said as Vegeta and Nappa looked in the direction of the power. He wasn't sure if the two followed his order before.

"Solar Flare!" There was a frustrated scream, two beams of energy in two different directions; another frustrated scream followed two small explosions.

Krillin opened his eyes. Tien was in the air, the sun behind him; Chiaotzu was behind the man fingers held in the direction of the aliens; Yamcha had found his feet, a drizzle of blood coating the corners of his mouth; Nappa had his hands over his eyes rubbing the furiously; and Vegeta stood, hand rubbing his eyes, his lips pulled back in a snarl. Krillin chanced a look at Piccolo and Gohan, luckily they'd followed the instruction from the lack of disconcertion.

"Plan is simple," he said in a whisper. "We strike from oblique angles, not give them the upper-hand or the opportunity to power up."

"I don't follow orders," said Piccolo.

"It's not an order," said Krillin. "Just a suggestion. But playing along will make fighting these guys easier. We'll target their tails."

Nappa was shouting something, muttering oaths Krillin wasn't familiar with as Tien and Chiaotzu landed, the man swinging his arms wildly in an effort to hit something. Yamcha joined them not a moment later.

"Guys stronger," said Yamcha. "It took a lot of me just taking that punch."

"Far stronger than any of us," Tien agreed. "Who's the kid?" he asked as Gohan shrank behind Piccolo.

"Goku's kid," Krillin answered. "Gohan."

Yamcha let out a whistle. "Wow, kid you've really taken after your—"

They all felt the surge just in time. Krillin and Piccolo had enough sense to pull Gohan out of the way as they took to the sky. A massive explosion tore through where they had just been standing, Nappa was still in the sky, his eyes closed and his mouth opened in the direction they stood.

"Little bastards!" he shouted. "Blinding me! Catching me from behind and cheating!" Another blast came from the man's mouth, though it was too far away from them.

"Let's do this," said Krillin. "Before they can see us."

Three nods and the four of the broke apart. Yamcha and Chiaotzu broke for the ground while Tien and Krillin charged for Nappa, they realised on route that the man had recovered; he glared as they flew towards him and shot forward, moving faster than a man his size should have been able to. A large meaty fist invaded Krillin's vision but he dodged while Tien threw a punch.

Nappa disappeared, appearing almost instantly behind Tien. The large man punched only to stop mid-air and plummeted to the ground, stirring rubble as he landed. Krillin and Tien capitalised—Nappa rose from his fall, letting out an excited chuckle—gathering their energy and firing a barrage of blasts at the man. They detonated on hit, six blasts in all and yet there wasn't a depletion of the man's energy level.

"Futile," Krillin muttered. "We're wasting energy like this."

"Tail?"

"Might let on to the other that we know about the weakness," said Krillin.

"Tire him out, then?"

Krillin didn't have a chance to answer. Nappa moved fast, breaking through the dust and headed for the two warriors. Krillin gathered his Ki prepared to attack but again Nappa was slammed off course by vicious kick from a purple clothed leg; again the man slammed into the ground.

"Figure you plan was a good as any," Piccolo said. "The short guy is stronger than him. Just putting it out there."

Power poured out from Piccolo, easily beyond anything Krillin could have achieved in a year. Hands clenched in fists as he looked between the two saiyans, the shorter of which had a smirk on him and was saying something too low for Krillin to here.

"He's goading the big one," said Piccolo. "He'll be pissed," and as he said this Nappa's power rose a few levels, further extending the difference between his ability and theirs.

Krillin looked at Piccolo. The man, much like Piccolo had predicted, was protecting them. If he showed his true power now, he might be thwarting Kami's plans. Strategy, he though. Oblique angles.

Nappa moved faster but Krillin and Piccolo wove out of the way, Tien wasn't so lucky, a fist as large as his face slammed into him and the man barrelled to the ground. Krillin and Piccolo charged the larger man, flitting across the sky, fists colliding in a massive waste of power. Krillin ducked low as a kick was sent at, Piccolo sent a close ranged blast that hit the man square in the face. Nappa wasn't even fazed, his heard jerked back and slammed into Piccolo, heralding a pain grunt from the man.

Krillin sensed the power coming and charged at Nappa, keeping the man's attention on him. It was surprisingly ease, reaching in and letting out just the right amount of Ki to keep up with the man. Too close to dodge, Krillin disappeared and the wave slammed into the man pushing him into the sky.

"Tri-beam!" he heard from below and at that moment the saiyan below disappeared, easily evading the attack and appearing in front of Krillin, arms crossed and looking at him as though he knew a secret Krillin was keeping.

Nappa screamed from above and the sun's light was momentarily dimmed but the energy attack. Vegeta smirked even as he disappeared. It wasn't exactly aimed at him but he knew its intent, Krillin pushed all his power to his hands and bellowed, "Kamehame…ha!"

The wave collided with the beam from Nappa, splitting through it and headed directly for the man. It hit and detonated, a massive explosion that rock the earth, causing a plume of fire. Krillin didn't delude himself, it was weaker, but he could still feel Nappa's power in the middle of it all.

Oblique angles, he thought. He charged and the man appeared from within the plume of smoke, armour battered and skin flayed. He punched but his hand passed through Krillin and the man appeared behind the brute. Nappa wasn't fooled, he whipped around, hand crackling with energy he sent a bolt and it slammed into Krillin, a searing pain passing through his chest. He winced and felt a flash of anger, power flooded out of him before he could hold it back, pushing the brute back.

Krillin charged forward, sending a quick punch that landed on Nappa's jaw. He didn't give the man time to recover as he soared to the ground, hand cupped he gathered power for a Turtle Wave and shot it at the man who'd only just stopped mid-air. He was left even weaker as the attack hit and yet again he didn't die.

This guy was powerful, but he was already tired, something Krillin was not. But he still had to tone it down. He took a glance at Piccolo and the man was directing a scowl not only at Nappa, but at Krillin; for that matter a lot of eyes were directed him.

Nappa moved, but Piccolo moved towards him. Vegeta was faster. The man appeared in front of Nappa catching Piccolo's extended knee with a hand. The short man didn't even flinch at the knees power, he only shoved the knee back and Piccolo quickly caught himself.

Vegeta grinned, letting out a boisterous laugh. "Oh, I see it," he said. "No wonder you were able to defeat that weakling, Raditz. You earthlings are a crafty bunch aren't you?" Another chuckle left him. "Misdirection. Making us thing the Namekian was the powerful one when it was the short pink thing all along."

"Vegeta," Nappa was saying, shakily trying to get to his feet. His voice sounded almost broken.

"Oh, don't worry, Nappa. I won't kill you for this sign of weakness, but you will have to answer it when we leave here."

"Thank...You, Prince Vegeta."

"Oh, don't thank me, Nappa," he said chuckling. "Don't thank me one bit. I have a very particular form of punishment I've been wanting to try out. Now gather yourself up, I'll take care of these guys."

Krillin tensed as the man's power rose, rocks and pebbles lifting off the ground before they clattered to the ground.

"I've been wanting my own army for a long time," the saiyan said. "You're nothing, when compared to me. But, you have moxy. I like that. But let's see how long it lasts against a superior warrior. Come at me!"

A white sphere went for Vegeta the man took to the air while Nappa dodged back. The sphere changed direction, not following Vegeta but heading straight for Nappa. The man jumped in an effort to dodge only to be pushed back by some unseen force, the sphere was about to hit when a purple explosion detonated. Nappa continued in his dodge and Piccolo directed an attack at him, it was slammed out of the air by an attack from Vegeta. Krillin charged and the flurry of punches was dodged without effort. Vegeta sent a punch and it hit, slamming into Krillin's stomach and taking all the air from his lungs; another hit at this neck and he slammed into the ground.

Powers collided above him in the mere moments that he was on the ground; Yamcha, Piccolo and Tien brawling the saiyan warrior. Tien went down, but there was something off about the man. Krillin felt it, a concentrated beam directed at Vegeta. Piccolo flew away, but Yamcha didn't do the same, he kept fighting the man, every hit heavily depleting his energy.

Krillin stood just in time to see the attack hit, the explosion was not a big as it should have been, but then Tien had used his most power attack more than three time. The warrior could still sense Vegeta, but there was an absence.

Vegeta had Yamcha's charred body in front of him, using the taller man as a shield. Insult to injury, Vegeta still had the smirk on his face.

"Didn't meet the grade!" the man commented before he shot off towards Tien. He stopped suddenly and Tien capitalised, hands in front of his face, fingers splayed, he said, "Solar Flare!"

Sunlight slammed and seared his eyes with such force that Krillin swore. He tried to focus, calming his mind: Vegeta was taking a few hit, thought they weren't doing much to him. Elsewhere Piccolo was doing something, a lot of power focused into a hand—the drill thing—which gave Krillin and idea. Ki was directed at this hand and spread thin and evenly, he started in a small rotating motion that stirred up wind.

He was started to recover from the flare, if that was true for him then it was true for Vegeta as well.

"Destructo disk!" and he threw the thing. Tien dodged, but Vegeta being faster did the same, dodging the large disk that whistled as it flew through the air.

Everything turned purple, a drill shooting from the ground towards Vegeta; not enough time completely dodge the drill tore through Vegeta's shoulder.

There was a scream not only of pain but of anger and annoyance. In a second Vegeta had a massive ball of energy over his head, he directed it down and it went straight for Piccolo.

A flare of power. "Masenko—Ha!" came a sharp scream and an orange energy ball slammed into the purple blast. Krillin screamed in an effort to form a shield from the explosion, dust, rubble and big chunks of large rocks littered the air, slamming ineffectively at the shield.

Gohan. Piccolo. Tien. Chiaotzu. All relatively still alive. Vegeta, if possible, had further increased in power in his anger.

All out, Krillin, he thought, not that it would matter. Vegeta was out of his league. He let out his Ki, power fuelling his strength and speed. He took off and kicked, the saiyan blocked and sent his own punch. Krillin only had a moment to dodge, enough time for Vegeta to get him on the defensive. He could see the anger in the man's eyes, his lust for battle and his annoyance. A knee caught Krillin in the stomach but before another attack could land the man was stopped by empty air. The annoyance flair and a scream left Vegeta as Krillin managed to land a hit in the bloodied arm.

Piccolo appeared joined the three-way fight, keeping the saiyan off-balance. Vegeta sent out a pulse of power that sent them all back, he charged only to be stopped again, this time not buy some invisible force but Tien who had a hold on Vegeta's tail.

A ball of energy formed in Vegeta' hand.

"Oh crap," the three-eyed man had a chance to mutter before the ball hit. Tien dropped like lead.

"Tien!" came a scream and something shattered, the earth rumbling. They all stopped and looked in the direction of the small figure who was engulfed in blue light. Boulders lifted into the air, but that wasn't worth the spectacle, a plateau had cracked at the base and lifted into the air. It changed direction, headed towards them at a massive speed.

Krillin thought his life might flash before his eyes but something grabbed him from behind and move him so fast that he saw he left a part of himself behind. He was softly put on the ground and he could see from the lump of green that the same could be said for Piccolo. The ground shook and the massive body Chiaotzu had been carrying with his mind landed, scraping against the ground. Another rumble and the thing split in half, purple lights flashing from it.

"Does this guy go down?" Krillin muttered feeling fatigue overtake him.

"Don't worry about it," said a familiar voice. "You softened him up for me. I think I can take him."

"Goku?" Krillin asked as he saw the spikey hair.

"Yeah," he said. "I'm impressed. You guys have really gotten stronger this past year."

"But not strong enough," Piccolo muttered. Krillin turned to look in his direction, Vegeta was in the, mouth set in a snarl and blood coming from his forehead. He looked pissed and to make this worse, his power was still rising.

"He won't be easy to take down, Goku," said Krillin. "He's too powerful."

"Good thing, King Kai taught me a special technique. It will serve well in this situation. But in case I need your help." Goku reached pulled a bag strapped to his belt and gave it to Krillin. "Give this to the others will you?" He said, taking out one of the beans for himself.

Krillin took the bag, four beans within. He took one and threw another at Piccolo. The man didn't hesitate before eating the bean. Krillin did the same, aches and pains disappeared and he felt revitalised.

"For Gohan," said Krillin giving Piccolo another senzu bean. The man nodded started in the direction. Goku took this time to float into the air, staring at Vegeta. The two began a conversation that Krillin couldn't hear.

He moved towards Chiaotzu, the man had collapsed, barely enough energy to keep him alive. Krillin woke him, fitting the bean into the smaller man's mouth and rubbing his throat. He swallowed.

Krillin turned to watch Goku and Vegeta, still in the air, still talking, though the former looked like he was shouting.

"NO!" Piccolo screamed and it surprised Krillin. "Goku, don't be an idiot. He—" But the man stopped as Goku threw something that Vegeta caught. The man ate it and immediately his power rose.

If ever there was a time Krillin hate Goku, it was now.

Vegeta let out a boisterous laugh and charged at Goku.

"Kaioken!" shouted Goku before he charged as well. When they met, the earth shook.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Krillin, Chiaotzu, Gohan and Piccolo stood on the ground, eyes following the battle above. Goku and Vegeta were vicious, garnering loud bangs every time their fists collided. The two disappeared, moving so fast that for a few seconds Krillin lost sight of them.

It was scary. The ground shaking and both of the fighter having broad grins on their faces. Both were enjoying the fight. Both were in their element, and with every second that passed Krillin could feel Goku's reserves depleting far faster than Vegeta's. A shout came from Goku and an aura of red surrounded him, his power doubled and the battle between him and Vegeta continued.

"You're stronger than the others," Piccolo commented his eyes still on the on-going battle. A salvo of energy attacks from Goku, but Vegeta batted them aside. The momentary distraction had been Goku's plan, he appeared above the saiyan and delivered a kick that was deftly blocked. They both disappeared. "Stronger than me. How could you have done that in as short an amount of time?"

Krillin noted that Chiaotzu looked interested as well. He shrugged. "Pushed myself," he answered.

Piccolo let out an annoyed grunt.

Vegeta landed a hit and Goku was able to stop himself from hitting the ground, this was made redundant as Vegeta slammed into him, stirring dust from the impact.

"You were a fool, Kakkarot!" Vegeta bellowed. "Thinking that because we're from the same race we're equals." Goku was just finding his feet when a beam slammed into him, pushing him further into the ground. "I, am an elite. You are nothing but a lower ranked fool."

"Don't. Under-estimate me!" scream Goku. "Kaioken times three!"

Goku's power shot up, well over Vegeta's and the man charged forward, landing hit after hit on Vegeta. Krillin gaped.

"Is that. My dad?" Gohan let out, his voice emcompassing Krillin's unadulterated surprise. Where the hell had that power come from?

They were blurs as the two warriors moved. Goku no longer on the defensive. The tide looked to have changed and Vegeta was losing his form, anger fuelling his strikes. Goku didn't let these opportunity pass, his hits struck home, increasing Vegeta's anger and increasing his sloppiness.

Vegeta shot back, the maneuver catching Goku off-guard; he cupped his hands, crackling with purple lighting. Vegeta's power soared higher, all being concentrated into one point. Krillin felt his heart drop, even battered and bruised the man didn't give up.

"That," Krillin started but his voice faltered. "That could destroy the earth."

"Vegeta, no! Don't do this!" Goku screamed and the boost was steadily depleting.

"This embarrassment will not stand!" the saiyan screamed from above. "I will not, be defeated by a lower class warrior!"

"We have to step in," said Piccolo and Krillin nodded without even considering.

"Chiaotzu, Gohan. Find a place to hide. Capitalise on any opportunity you see. Fill Gohan in on the way we attack."

"Mr Yamcha already told me," the young boy said with a soft voice.

"Good," said Krillin as the power got higher. "Stay close to Chiaotzu. Stay safe." The pair nodded and then flew off.

"Gallick Gun!" Vegeta was saying just as Goku said, "Kamehameha!"

Purple and blue collided and the impact left Krillin and Piccolo momentarily reeling. The sky was a miasma of blue and purple, the sun dimmed out by the power; rubble stirred, where the beams met, energy crackling fiercely.

Vegeta let out a guttural scream, pushing his attack with that much more force. Goku was losing, the resulting combination edging closer to him with every passing second. Krillin and Piccolo were hit by the same idea; the man's hands were cupped at this side while the demon's went over his head.

"Masenko-Ha!" Piccolo screamed as Krillin bellowed his own attack. In retrospect, this had been stupid when they had been wanting surprise, but retrospect something of a dog, the female kind. Vegeta saw the attacks coming and made to dodge, losing the tug-of-war in the process. Goku's Turtle Wave pushed The Gallick Gun back just as the Masenko and Krillin's wave slammed into Vegeta at an angle, pushing the man into the sky.

Goku's reserves plummeted and Krillin noted that the man had fallen to exhaustion, as of now he was the most powerful person on earth. There was something to that, a sense of pride maybe? But he pushed it back, he could still sense Vegeta, far weaker and would be easier to take down.

Krillin took a last look at Goku, the man wasn't any danger. He would survive. Krillin pushed off and Piccolo followed. High above the ground Vegeta had stabilised and he was screaming up a storm. He turned as they got closer, he can sense energy, Krillin thought, but more than anything he thought, oh crap.

"Solar Flare!"

He blinked but light was faster, slamming into his eyes like a truck and burning his eyes. Krillin tried to concentrated, but his eyes were throbbing blocking his mind of anything but the pain. Damn this attack and its ease, Krillin thought.

"I'll kill you all!" Vegeta was screaming. "I'll kill all of you and kill everyone who doesn't know about the dragon balls, and when I get my immortality! I'll destroy this planet and everyone who'll still be in it."

Krillin saw the man's blurry shape, but he was taller, more muscular and as he spoke his voice was getting deeper. But worst of all, his power level was soaring. In mere seconds Vegeta was ten times stronger than before, hulking over Piccolo and Krillin in the form of a giant ape.

"How?" Piccolo stammered. "How is this possible? I destroyed the moon."

Vegeta let out a gruff chuckle. "You can blame Kakkarot's father for that," Vegeta rumbled before his mouth spread open and white light was shot out. It was by luck alone that Krillin managed to dodge the giant attack. Piccolo wasn't so lucky.

The attack slammed into him and when it hit the ground there was a massive explosion; his power disappeared.

"No," Krillin whispered, his heart clenching and twisting at the same time. Piccolo and Kami. Both dead. The dragon balls. Gone. "No. No. No."

Vegeta let out a jovial laugh, hands coming together to form a giant fist. The wind whipped as the fist barrelled towards him. Krillin felt a strong tug, grabbed by an invisible hand he was pulled to side and missed by the attack. Vegeta's two-handed fist collided with a mountain and broke it apart without much effort.

"Kaioken times three!" and Goku's power sky rocketed again. A barrage shot from the ground and hit Vegeta's giant form to no avail. The man only continued to laugh, swatting his hand where Goku had been only moments ago.

Krillin landed on the ground, still carried by the invisible hand. Goku was flitting through the air, dodging Vegeta's much slower bulk. Another energy beam that Goku was able to effectively evade.

"Krillin," but Krillin's mind was far off. Without Piccolo there were no dragon balls. Without Piccolo there were no dragon balls. "Krillin, Goku's losing," said Chiaotzu. "We need to do something."

The words were like a slap to the face. The boost was diminishing again and Vegeta was coming closer at landing a hit.

"The moon," said Krillin. "The tail. The drill. My disk."

"What?" Chiaotzu asked.

"The only difference we can make," he said. "We can't pierce his hide with regular attacks." As if to prove this Goku denoted three ineffectual attacks on Vegeta. "Gohan," The boy's attention snapped from the fight to Krillin. "Please tell me Piccolo taught you that drill beam of his."

"He showed me," the little boy said. "But it takes a long time to gather the energy for it."

"Don't worry about that," Krillin whispered. "Just worry about your aim. How good is it?"

A blush formed on the boy's cheeks. "The only thing I've been able to hit was that attack that would going to hit," he faltered. "Mr Piccolo."

"And that was good," the man said. "You did well. The moment Chiaotzu and I leave, you start gathering power. You need to aim for the heart, okay?"

Gohan swallowed but he gave a nod.

Krillin looked at Chiaotzu. "Do you think you could hold him?"

"A second at most, but I would only be able to do it once."

"Then all this needs to happened right," said Krillin. A bang and the ground shook. "Chiaotzu, yours is the hardest job. I need a clone. We'll try another Solar Flare, but he'll be expecting it so it will need to come from a direction he won't be expecting.

"I'll try and take out his tail, without it, he'll lose his ape form and his boost will fade. Gohan. You aim for the heart while Chiaotzu keeps him from dodging. Let's go."

Krillin and Chiaotzu shot into the air and towards the fight. Goku dodged a punch but Vegeta's massive tail hit the man sending him into the horizon. Krillin's hands came together and he let out a barrage that got Vegeta's attention. A beam shot from his mouth but it detonated as though it had slammed into something, Chiaotzu grunt was answer enough. Krillin split, two clones shooting off in opposite directions, both already concentrating their energy for a Turtle Wave.

Krillin shot to the ground and hid in alcoves within the gravel. He pushed his energy to his hand. Chiaotzu had split as well, not faster than Vegeta his many clones were being hit, thought they were disappearing, a different technique than his own Krillin thought.

"Solar Flare!" came a shriek but it was cut off as the clone was hit and disappeared.

Vegeta let out a laugh. "Old trick! Human! Why don't you—" he was cut-off by a guttural scream as a sudden burst of blue light slammed into him.

Goku, Krillin thought, and the attack had at least frustrated Vegeta. He screamed and sent a wild hit that was without direction. Krillin shot from his alcove, took aim of the giant's tail and threw the attack—a thin beam of purple and yellow—only to have it cut Gohan's drill in half.

A strangled scream of frustration left Krillin as the two attacks cancelled each other out, and that had been their best hope.

Damn it all, he thought. The same trick wouldn't work twice and all of them had used so much energy.

Vegeta shot out a white beam, taking out three of Chiaotzu's clones that disappeared as though they hadn't been there. The small man was no longer in the sky, but Krillin could sense him, hiding much like the others.

'Krillin,' screamed a voice in Krillin's mind. 'Goku has an attack that can fell, Vegeta. But he needs time.'

Time is something I can't give. I'm tired and out of tricks.

'Think of something,' said the voice.

Vegeta had said he was an elite. He believed he was superior and anything challenged that made him angry. Krillin smiled at that. Anger. It was a double-edged sword, Vegeta's ferocity increased, but also made him sloppy. He needed Vegeta angry. So angry that he wouldn't consider the absence of Goku, nor feel the attack coming. He grinned as a suicidal idea formed.

He shot towards the sky, weaving out of the way of a massive fist.

"Hey Vegeta!" he shouted and the ape whirled around, it mouth opening and a breath of white shot out, passing through Krillin's after-image and slamming into the ground.

"Another try to distract me?" Vegeta rumbled as he turned around, moving with surprising speed but still not fast enough. Krillin dodged the whipping tail.

"I'm just trying to talk to you!" said Krillin. "Wanna…" he dodged a punch. "Just want to tell you a funny story."

There was a grunt. "Your pleas for mercy mean nothing to me."

"But you'll want to hear this," said Krillin. "It's. It's really funny. I think you'll like the humour. It involves death."

"Shut up and stay still, you fly!"

"I'll tell you anyway. You know how you wanted information about the dragon balls? We'll. I'll tell you this. The just you killed. The green one you called Namek-something. Well." Krillin dodged. "He was connected to the dragon balls' creator. He dies and the creator dies. And…you just killed him."

Krillin felt a pang, but it was nothing to what Vegeta felt. A roar, animalistic in every way. The man lost it. He no longer purely attacked Krillin, but he attacked everything and anything that was within vision. Krillin bolted, moving low as to out of the man's view.

It had been unintentional, but it had worked. Now the man was more animal that…human. No, that expression didn't fit. But Krillin didn't have time to think on it. His distraction aside and he could feel Goku. Power leagues above even the monstrous form, the sphere or energy looked no different than the moon as Krillin looked at it.

Vegeta wasn't aware, caught in his rage. The sphere heaved forward and in seconds slammed into the large ape. Vegeta was subsumed by the white ball of energy, a screech leaving him as it detonated, the explosion rocking the earth and leaving a massive chasm in the ground.

The ape having disappeared and with him, his massive power.

Krillin let out a breath of relief.

They'd won, but the price was heavy.


	6. Chapter 6

Interlude: Guardian Protocol

It was sudden and dramatic. At first there was nothing but desolate ground, pieces of jagged rock and battle created alcoves, the wind stirring dust as it gave a chilling howl. The piece of earth was truly barren. A place that had been filled with so much life before was now dead, except for the hand that broke through from beneath the earth.

Nappa, having found his grip, pulled himself from the earth. He was battered and bruised, each small motion causing him to break out in grunts of pain. It took longer than it should have, but he managed to pull himself clear from beneath the rubble and took a few minutes, staring at the night's sky where stars twinkled serenely.

A sad day it was for the saiyan race it was today, beaten by a race of beings that, a year ago had had trouble fighting Raditz. Raditz of all people! Nappa would have shaken his head but he didn't want to feel the pain.

He let out a chuckle, this was ironic in a pay. The beating his body had received because of the fighting between the earthling and the late Prince Vegeta was about the same the Vegeta would have done to him as punishment.

Nappa supposed he deserved it. The humans and the Namekian had disposed of him far easier than should have been possible. It was with Vegeta's race that the prince had shown him mercy when he had shown weakness.

Hours passed, most of which Nappa had lost consciousness. But when he awoke again he did his best stay awake. He thought about using his Ki to fly but then he would be sense. It had taken a matter of hours while buried beneath the rubble to figure the technique out and sense the battle above, so it went to reason if it was so easy for him, the earthlings would have been able to refine the technique to sense even minute changes in power.

Nappa took a long breath, too much thinking at once. Something he didn't like, but seeing as Vegeta was dead, he needed to think everything through.

The first was surviving. Nappa took a few moments in thought, digging through his memories for the closest town they had passed. Another few minutes and the large saiyan stood, starting the long walk to at least a meal.

Immortality aside he needed to get Vegeta back from the dead, but he would need more muscle so he could get more information on the dragon balls. He didn't like it, but any idea hit.

In would be messing up long-term plans, but it was needed.

Giant hands fumbled with small machinery parts and Nappa let out frustrated scream. A month and the radio-transmitter hadn't started working yet.

He let out a sigh. "Calm down, Nappa," he thought. "Everything's going to work out given time."

The humans hadn't discovered him yet, though he could sense them at times. Three were training, two together while another training in solitude. The days they spent training were days they were surpassing him in power. Nappa also had been keeping an eye on a fourth, but he was stationary, stronger than the other. Out of curiosity—and partially stupidity—Nappa had gone and checked the stationary warrior all to find out he was in the hospital.

A peak from the window and the man, bearing a strong resemblance to two others, had mummified, the only thing visible being his eyes.

"I know you're there," the man had said, not moving. Nappa had felt panic seize the large warrior and he'd thought of attacking the man, killing him to make sure his cover on earth was blown. "We all do," the man had went on to say and Nappa's stomach had dropped.

"Krillin, you'd know his as the bald guy, has taken it unto himself to be Guardian until Kami returns. He's watching you. Makin sure you don't kill anyone. I've asked him to. Telling him that you're worth mercy. Don't prove me wrong."

After which the man had grown quiet.

Nappa had flown away, using as much Ki as he could to see if indeed the man had been telling the truth. He hadn't been followed, which had come as something of a small relief.

Since then Nappa had continued his training. He hated that he was at the mercy of earthlings, but they were numerous and they were powerful. He still had a plan though, a strange thing for him to have, but he was sure it would work.

The saiyan continued his work.

Two weeks and finally the signal went through.

"Turles Crusher Corps, your friendly, planet-destroying pirates. Which planet may be plunder for you today?" a voice rang out.

Nappa wasn't sure who it was, the last time he'd seen Turles the saiyan had been trying to steal a ship. Since then he'd heard tale that the man had done himself well, keeping below Frieza's radar, aided, in large part by Prince Vegeta.

"Nappa speaking, tell Turles to come to earth."

"Nappa?" said the voice on the other side. "The one who works for Frieza?"

"Never mind who I work for," the saiyan snarled. "Give your boss the message and tell him to contact me when he's close."

The saiyan quickly shut off the device as it sparked, a burning smell coming from it. This region had yet to be explored, which explained why its inhabitants had experienced years of freedom from the short man, meaning at least a month before Turles arrived. He would have the device in working order then, and maybe have a plan for smuggling in the pirates without the earthlings sensing them.

A distraction, maybe? He still had the saibamen. But they might know it was him. It didn't matter. The earthlings didn't have space-faring, they was the matter of the Namekian, but he was dead. The moment he got onto a Turles ship and left, he would be out of their reach.

Disgusting, in a way. He was running from earthlings of all things.

But he had to think about the future and pride needed to take a backseat for the time being.

Nappa paused mid-air as a beeping came from his dwelling. He went inside and into his study, the room was filled with books that he had used to study earth culture and took a seat, pressing a few buttons.

"Nappa," said a voice. "My guys said you ordered me towards this planet. Honestly, it doesn't sound like you. Sounds more like Vegeta than anything. It's got me curious. Why am I here? For that matter, why are you cruising an ancient frequency?"

"Long story," said Nappa. "But I'm willing to explain face-to-face, how far are you?"

"About a day away from that planet of yours. You really sure you're not going to even give me a hint? I could just leave you there, not bother going to some back water planet that hasn't even managed to set up planetary defences."

Nappa grumbled something intelligible before he took a large breath and calmed himself.

"Save me the fuel, honestly," the man went on.

Nappa took another breath. "I'll tell you why you look like Bardock," said Nappa and he could almost feel the interest from the radio device.

"I'll track your transmission and be in your location in a day," said Turles.

Now, the distraction.

Six saibamen in three cities and in pairs of two. They wrecked the place and Nappa could feel the three fighters splitting up, each taking their respective cities. The ship didn't even take minutes before it landed, large and vaguely insectoid. It bore nothing a resemblance to the attack ships that he and Vegeta had, which were far faster, this instead was a warship, to carry an army to battle with wasting fuel.

Its pad opened and Nappa quickly made his way in, one of Turles' men, he wasn't sure of the name tried to say something to him, most probably about the attire, but the saiyan brushed by him, headed for the cockpit.

Turles was there, lounging in the captain's seat and giving every ting a half glance. He jumped up though as Nappa entered, eyes looking around with a smirk on his face.

"Ah, you seem to be missing someone, there, Nappa. I don't see his royal highness behind you," the smirk was gave it off. He knew or at least guessed as such

"Prince Vegeta's dead," Nappa said.

The saiyan brightened and Nappa felt a rise of anger, his power increasing and scouters beeping.

"What the," one of the minions muttered. "Scouter's broken."

"Mine too," said another.

Nappa ignored them and said, "Protocol reset. Password: Raditz. Alpha. One. Six. Two. Primary command. Revive Prince Vegeta. Secondary command. Perpetuation of the saiyan race. Activate."

There was a short pause, Turles standing absolutely still. His minions looked a little confused, looking between Turles and Nappa.

"What did you do with the boss?" one of the short ones asked.

"Get off planet," Nappa ordered. "Set course for Neptune."

"We don't follow orders from—" the largest one started but stopped by a punch to the jaw by Nappa. He didn't get up, though he wasn't dead.

"I could kill you all. But I won't. Start up the ship and takes us to one of the surrounding planets, I have a lot to explain."

"Do it," said Turles.

The minions followed the command.

* * *

><p>AN: I was supposed to be studying, but I grew bored and found myself on Youtube watching TFS's work. I loved it and remembered that I really love DBZ. This lead me to foregoing studying for the day into reading some of the works in this particular genre. I loved some and took inspiration from them. In large part this was inspired by The Fall of Lord Frieza and Break Through the Limit. I haven't finished the massively large stories, but I like their styles and that led to this.<p>

This was an act of boredom, which is probably the reason it was so easy to finish the first arc (Not to mention that it didn't deviate too much on cannon). So it will be a story I won't rush to finish. But I am already planning what will happened in the Namek Saga.


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